What happens to the electric field inside a conductor when it is in electrostatic equilibrium?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
What happens to the electric field inside a conductor when it is in electrostatic equilibrium?
It increases
It decreases
It becomes zero
It remains constant
In electrostatic equilibrium, the electric field inside a conductor is zero.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
1 item
Q
Q: What happens to the electric field inside a conductor when it is in electrostatic equilibrium?
Solution: In electrostatic equilibrium, the electric field inside a conductor is zero.
Steps: 5
Step 1: Understand what a conductor is. A conductor is a material that allows electric charges to move freely.
Step 2: Know what electrostatic equilibrium means. It is a state where charges are at rest and not moving.
Step 3: Realize that when a conductor is in electrostatic equilibrium, any excess charge will distribute itself on the surface of the conductor.
Step 4: Remember that electric fields are created by electric charges. Inside a conductor, charges will move until they cancel out any electric field.
Step 5: Conclude that in electrostatic equilibrium, the electric field inside the conductor becomes zero because the charges have arranged themselves to balance out any internal electric field.
